Media Column: Are Lakers shooting an on-air ball with TV contract?

Jeanie Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of business operations, isn't blind to the fact there could be misguided blame heaped on the team by default because of its connection to the launch of the new Time Warner Cable SportsNet.

Funny thing is, she can't see the new channel, either. It's not on her DirecTV service.

Her strategy: Wait it out.

"To me, it brings back memories of moving from the Forum to Staples Center in 1999," she said Thursday. "Our fans were concerned about the traffic, about the sightlines - even about the hot dogs. One fan said he wanted to `keep the seats they had at the Forum' and we had to explain they could but that the Lakers wouldn't be playing there. Fortunately, the Lakers won a championship our first year at Staples Center and assured our fans we could be successful in a new environment.

"I am hoping the move to a new broadcast home will follow that same championship pattern."

The $3 billion, 20-year deal TWC deal provides the Lakers with plenty of flexibility to exceed the NBA salary cap and bring the necessary money to pay the luxury taxes that they will incur not just this year but in seasons to come. But it also puts a large target on the team's back when fans who aren't TWC subscribers for the time being might feel marginalized in the process since the SportsNet and Deportes channels launched Monday.

Buss has a backup plan when she's not actually at a Lakers game - head over to former Lakers coach and still boyfriend Phil Jackson's apartment in Playa del Rey to watch on his TWC service, likely starting with the first exhibition game Sunday in Fresno against Golden State.

John Ireland, the Lakers' radio play-by-play man on KSPN-AM (710), has been a DirecTV customer in Manhattan Beach since 1995, so he's without channel access, too. And he's one of the on-air hosts.

"I tend to be an optimist with things like this," Ireland said Thursday. "I can't imagine once they see how good the Time Warner Cable networks are, they won't cut a deal before the regular season starts."

The Lakers' Oct. 30 season opener at home against Dallas is exclusive to TNT, but the second game, Oct. 31 at Portland on Halloween night, might scare the bejesus out of fans who don't have the channel by then.

TWC execs insist they need as many other cable systems as possible to come on board for its investment to pay off. The reported asking price of $3.95 per subscriber per system provides the largest hurdle.

It behooves DirecTV, Dish, Charter, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse and Cox to wait things out until actual Lakers games begin. DirecTV, for example, stands to save itself a couple hundred thousand dollars every day until the end of the month. (And for those who think they can get around this by having the NBA League Pass, it won't work - local games are blacked out).

DirecTV spokesman Bob Mercer says his company and TWC, as the two largest TV providers in L.A., "share a responsibility to ensure that both sports fans and non-sports fans alike avoid any extraordinary increases to their families' monthly bills. We plan to carry TWC SportsNet in a way that is affordable for everyone."

Dish Network, which joined TWC as a provider of the Pac-12 Network - one that DirecTV continues to resist, despite its 80-cent subscriber charge - is talking with TWC "but we will only come to an agreement if the programming is offered at a good value for our customers," Dish spokesperson John Hall said.

Viewers who panic might go to the IWantMyLakers.com link off the Lakers' home webpage, find an offer sitting there for a $200 Visa Reward Card "when you switch to Time Warner Cable," and take the bait.

Buss says she realizes this whole changing of channels away from KCAL-Channel 9 and Fox Sports West after decades of service is a "sensitive situation" - the Lakers were one of the last teams to keep a free, over-the-air network as part of their broadcast strategy. She also sees confusion about whether the team appears to be asking fans to switch service providers.

"That's not true," she said. "I've made it a point to say I'm a DirecTV subscriber for a long time and I'm confident that one of the most sports-centric platforms that has provided Lakers games to me in the past will want to continue that through their service.

"As an organization, we spent many months considering our options and carefully weighing every implication knowing that change is difficult for everyone, including our fans. Ultimately, we wanted to be on one home and have the ability to deliver more in-depth Lakers content to our fans besides just the pregame, postgame and the actual game.

"The move wasn't an impulsive decision nor one taken lightly, it was important piece to the future success of the Lakers team and to serving Lakers fans more content with state of the art technology in English and Spanish."